It appears Erik Kallgren is the latest leaf to draw the ire of opposing fans. The young Swedish netminder made a fantastic save on Washington's Alexander Ovechkin on a breakaway early in the third period. In the act of making the save, Kallgren's stick got into the skates of Ovechkin, causing the Caps captain to trip and slide awkwardly into the boards. Ovechkin stayed down and didn't return to the game, the Captials announced Monday that Ovechkin is day to day with an upper body injury.
The "World Hockey Report" on Twitter posted the replay, Watching the play at full speed, its difficult to see exactly why or how the stick got into Ovechkin's skates, but the slowmo shows very clearly that Kallgren was simply trying to get across to make the save. He threw himself off balance when he extended his leg back, causing his upper body to fall forward. In no way is there any type of intent to trip Ovechkin on the play. Kallgren even made sure to check on Ovechkin while he was on the ice.
For those in the comments who are attacking Kallgren, grow up. I've seen people go to bat for guys like Tom WIlson constantly, but an inadvertent trip suddenly makes a rookie goaltender a dirty player? I wonder what these people would have done if the internet existed when Ron Hextall played in the NHL.
This is a 25-year-old kid with less than 10 NHL starts to his name. If people truly believe Kallgren purposely tripped Ovechkin with the intent to injure him, I have a Bridge in New York I'd like to sell them. With all that being said, I hope Ovechkin isn't badly injured. Nobody likes to see a player go down like that when the playoffs are right around the corner.
